WYCE celebrates programmers: John "Moose" Williamson

WYCE is a listener supported, volunteer powered, community radio station. Our organizational mission is "Building Community through Media,” and we take that seriously.

Programmer: John “Moose” Williamson

What are your work/volunteer/hobbies?

I work as an Academic Counselor at Calvin College, where I also volunteer on the Sexual Assault Prevention Team. I make a sort of storytelling podcast called Based on a True Story that’s…really pretty good. I also play tennis with an informal club of artsy musician types and friends at MLK park on the southeast side.

How long have you been at WYCE?

I started programming at WYCE in the summer of 2016. About a year later I started helping one the Catalyst radio team, recording interviews promoting local non-profit organizations and events.

What brought you to WYCE?

It’s a station that serves the community in a way I wasn’t hearing anywhere else. There are other great local stations with different missions, but certainly there’s a wild world of music you only hear at WYCE. Just the fact that it IS so powered by volunteers made me interested and excited to maybe become a part of things.

In your view, how does WYCE empower the local community?

In a lot of ways, I think. We’re playing music from West Michigan artists, and providing space to share their music and talk about it live on the radio. We support and spotlight great local events and causes. I work with the Catalyst Radio team to share with our listeners some of the great work happening in our community that they might not know about. We’re partnering with local venues to keep a live music scene in Grand Rapids thriving. There are volunteers like me who are having the chance to share themselves and the music they love all day every day. I think WYCE, also, continues to work to learn to better know and understand the diversity of Grand Rapids, and better serve communities who may not have realized how valued they are in the City of Grand Rapids. Continuing to diversify the music we’re sharing and the artists we’re promoting, we hope, helps 88.1 feel like a place all people in West Michigan can hear songs they can hear their own stories in.

What other ways do you personally serve the local community?

I support local music and some local organizations I like and care about. I’ve volunteered at the Grand Rapids Feminist Film Festival in the past. I’m a big fan of Girls Rock Grand Rapids, both the great young musicians and the wonderful people who make the program possible. I try, really try, to encourage creativity in my community however I can.

With events like the 'WYCE Hopcat Blue Bridge Festival' or the 'GRAM on the Green' summer concert series, we provide a space for community members to gather and enjoy the best local musicians together. By playing an eclectic blend of local, regional, emerging, and under-represented music on-air, we educate the community and expose our listeners to sounds and voices they may have never heard otherwise.

And because we are volunteer-powered, we provide a platform to elevate the voices of local citizens and empower them to make a positive impact on the West Michigan community. Each day of our 2018 Fall Fund Drive, we will be publishing brief profiles of some of our programmers. Check out their stories and see What You Can Empower by making a contribution to WYCE!

To donate, go to www.wyce.org/support or call (616) 742-9923.